Titanfall Beta Impressions: Prepare For The Drop

Once you’ve gained your footing as a soldier, it’s time to stand back in awe as you watch that glorious Titan fall from the sky. These massive tools of destruction completely change the scope of the battlefield and force Titanfall to exist as a game that embraces multiple levels of gameplay. Entering your Titan feels visceral and keeps you immersed in the game by having the enormous mech lift you inside. As the hatch shuts, everything fades to black until the screens inside burst to life and you begin your mech enabled dominance of the battlefield.

Each player will have their own unique play style when piloting their Titan. Some will opt to customize their robotic comrade with survival boosting capabilities like longer dome shields that spawn around your Titan upon landing. Other players will elect for a more direct approach by combining the ability to auto-eject from a doomed Titan with the nuclear reactor modification, which causes a devastating blast that eliminates nearby enemies. Even in the limited beta, there are a diverse range of options available and it’s exciting to consider the possibilities once more has been revealed.

What Titanfall executes perfectly is balancing the dual-nature of controlling both the Pilot and Titan combat. It’s a seamless transition between the two forms of play and this division creates a compelling experience that constantly forces you to adapt to a range of situations. To put it simply, it’s extremely addicting.

The appeal of the game is perpetuated through the unique secondary bonuses that exist in the form of Burn Cards. Up to three of these cards can be equipped before a match and will enhance gameplay in a variety of ways, such as instantly calling in a Stryder or Ogre Titan, receiving an enhanced weapon or significantly increasing your movement speed. Once you use these cards though they are gone, hence the term, burn cards.

Interestingly, players can only hold up to 25 of them and are only able to use three cards at once in a match. This maintains the strong balance seen throughout Titanfall’s gameplay by offering a competitive edge, but ensuring that gamers cannot abuse the perks that Burn Cards offer.

Titanfall’s appeal is easy to see. It’s an insane first person shooter that builds upon the core shooting mechanics found in the Call of Duty series, but it’s so much more than that too. It’s an evolution of multiplayer warfare that pushes the dynamics of gameplay to impressive new levels. If the beta is any sign of things to come when the game launches on March 11th, 2014 for Windows PC and Xbox One, then consider us ready for the drop.